


I'm Not A Princess

by KingHippiedude (missreader)



Series: The Avengers Are Actually a Parents-of-Trans-Kids Support Group [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Genderqueer, Genderqueer Character, Non-binary character, Trans, Trans Character, Transgender, non-binary, transgender character, transvengers, transvengers assemble
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 19:29:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5598067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missreader/pseuds/KingHippiedude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thor and Jane have kids. One of them is genderqueer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is still quite rough; I'm just trying to get everything I wrote for the Transvengers Initiative posted before the end of the year. So expect some edits and additions in the future.
> 
> Also, note that pronouns for the genderqueer character may change depending on the POV.

Thor had noticed that his daughter had been withdrawing into herself, purchasing men’s clothing, and wearing dresses with less frequency recently, but he didn’t know what any of it meant. She had never been particularly feminine, rarely wearing skirts or makeup and having a passionate hatred for all things pink. But she had never seemed so unsure of herself before. Sure, she put on a good face and acted like everything was okay, but Thor could see through the mask and see that it wasn’t.

The changes had been small to begin with. She had cut her blonde hair short, sporting a cute pixie cut. She had started wearing jeans and t-shirts more and her few skirts and dresses less. She had started using more gender-neutral language, which took him a while to pick up on since English wasn’t his native tongue. She wore mainly sports bras and set aside anything with padding. Over the course of a year she had gone from the bubbly teenage girl he remembered to this quiet solemn girl, too mature for her years, who seemed to find no peace with herself. He wanted to know what had changed, wanted to ask, but he dared not push.

Finally, the waiting paid off, and Astrid came to him.

“Daddy,” she said. “I have something I want to talk about.”

“Of course, dear one.”

She was silent for a moment before asking, “I know that you’ve at least heard of transgender people, but do you know anything about non-binary gender identities?” She scuffed her shoe on the ground as she waited for his response.

“No. I know not of what you speak. Would you care to enlighten me?”

“Well. The gender binary is a social construct. Most people, when they are born, are assigned either ‘male’ or ‘female’ and our society has certain expectations of children based on that assignment which is usually made based pretty much entirely on the outward appearance of their genitalia. Males are supposed to grow up to be men. Females are supposed to grow up to be women. Men are strong, aggressive, and dominant. And women are weak, passive, and submissive. But this is a false binary. First it assumes that there are only two sexes, which is patently false. There are hundreds of different intersex conditions which affect people in various ways and may not even be apparent at birth. And then there are the stupid gender roles that have practically no basis in fact but are perpetuated by society in the way we teach and socialize children and by acting like they are real. But that’s really more about sexism and gender expression than gender identity. Some people are assigned male at birth but later identify as a woman or vice versa. Some people have an intersex condition that causes ‘ambiguous genitalia’ and therefore no clear assigned sex who later identify fully as a man or a woman. And there are some people who are assigned something at birth but who later feel like that doesn’t fit and neither does the other binary option. Some people feel like a mixture of both genders, some like a third gender, some like they don’t have a gender at all. And some people simply don’t know or have a word to describe how they feel. And all of these identities are called non-binary.

“So, anyways, I feel like that, and I have started identifying as non-binary. As genderqueer, specifically. And I’d really like it if you would use they/them pronouns for me…?” they ended hesitantly, coming down from their earlier rant.

“Okay,” Thor said. “I do not truly understand. But I know that this is important to you, and you are my dau- my _child_. And I love you. I want you to be happy and to love yourself. And if this is what makes you happy, then I cannot say nay.”

Astrid hurled themself at him, and he pulled them close, squeezing them tight and briefly lifting their feet off the floor. He could feel them crying against his chest and said nothing, just holding them close.


	2. Chapter 2

“Hey, Astrid,” Jane said to her daughter, “I’m not working because of the holiday on Monday. How would you like to have a girls’ day?”

Astrid said, “uh, yeah, sure,” but Jane saw something in her expression which made her think that Astrid was uncomfortable. She had seemed to cringe a bit at the suggestion, which made Jane sad. She wanted to spend time with her daughter whenever she could, and she was worried that now that Astrid was a teenager, she wouldn’t want to spend time with her mother anymore.

“You don’t seem very excited. Is something wrong?”

“No, of course not,” she replied hastily. Then after a pause continued, “well, not exactly. I do want to spend time with you. But I just- I don’t like being called a girl. I’ve been kind of uncomfortable with the idea of being a girl for a while now, and I’ve been doing some research, and I think- no, I know- that I’m non-binary. I’m not a girl or a boy. I’m a little bit of both, I guess, or neither, or just something else entirely. I don’t really know. But, the point is, I’m not a _girl_.”

“Okay,” Jane said, a little hesitant and unsure. She felt guilty that she had been working so much recently that she hadn’t even noticed Astrid was having issues until now. “I need to do some research of my own, but I want you to know that I love you, no matter what.”

“Thank you,” Astrid whispered, a few tears slipping out and down their cheeks.

“So, are we still on for Monday?”

Astrid smiled and said, “definitely.”


	3. Chapter 3

Thor had just put the chicken in the oven when he heard the front door open. He assumed it must be Astrid because Lukas was supposed to be at soccer practice this afternoon, but he heard no greeting, which was quite odd. His ~~daughter~~ ( _child_ , he corrected himself; Astrid had finally come out to them properly as genderqueer last week after months of struggling with their identity), was usually just as friendly and jovial as their father. So, he swiftly set the timer on the stove and went to find his strangely silent child.

“Astrid, darling, are you in there?” he asked, knocking on their bedroom door.

He heard the muffled sounds of someone climbing out of bed and walking to the door and the sound of the lock clicking before the door opened to reveal Astrid, eyes wet but no tears spilling down their cheeks yet. He stepped inside and joined them on the bed.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

After a momentary pause, Astrid answered, “One of my friends keeps doing this thing where he says ‘ladies first’ and lets me walk ahead of him. And I know he doesn’t mean it badly; he’s just trying to be polite. It’s part of his southern gentleman charm. But every time it feels like he’s ignoring my identity and misgendering me. And I don’t know how to ask him to stop without sounding rude.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The 'ladies first' thing is something that has happened to me, and it's really frustrating. :(


	4. Chapter 4

Jane was out shopping for prom dresses with Astrid. It was their junior year, and they were determined to have the _best dress ever_. They had talked about wearing a suit at one point but had dismissed the idea. _“There’s no reason why androgynous has to mean masculine. Wearing a dress doesn’t make me less non-binary,” she had said._ And so, here they were, looking through rack after rack of dresses in all different styles and colors. If Astrid had any idea what they were looking for, they hadn’t bothered to tell Jane, so she was fruitlessly suggesting practically every item in the store.

Astrid eventually collected about a dozen dresses that they liked enough to try-on and moved to one of the fitting rooms. Jane thought that they were gorgeous in all of them, though one in particular was absolutely stunning. It was a light blue strapless dress with a bejeweled corset top and wide princess skirt. Astrid looked like Cinderella in it. But they weren’t quite happy with any of the dresses the store offered and decided to sleep on it.

The next day, rather than return to the dress shop, Astrid went to the large fabric store down the road and searched through patterns, intending to sew something for themself.

They came home with a shopping bag but refused to let Jane see what was in it, insisting that it would be a surprise.

And boy was it a surprise when Astrid walked down the stairs the night of prom in a stunning red satin dress that clung to their curves just right. It had an asymmetrical design at the top with a single strap over the left shoulder and the floor-length skirt had a slit up to just above the knee. Astrid looked absolutely mature and dignified and would certainly be the most striking person at the dance that night.

***

Phoenix was going to prom with Astrid, not as a date, just as friends. They were insistent about that fact, and they were going with a group, mostly made up of their friends from the support group. Where Astrid had decided on a more feminine outfit, Phoenix had gone with a more masculine suit, though xe had discussed other options.

No one seemed to know where Phoenix had gotten it, but the centerpiece of xyr outfit for prom was a bright yellow suit jacket which xe wore with charcoal grey pants, a white shirt, and a turquoise waistcoat. Xyr tie was printed with a floral pattern that complemented the jacket and waistcoat both, and xe somehow looked both ridiculous and quite handsome. Xe had even died xyr hair to match xyr outfit. Xe didn’t match Astrid at all, but neither of them cared, and it didn’t really seem to matter.

Robin, Ryan and Leo were all in high school but just a little too young to go to prom, so Astrid, Phoenix, and Elena invited them. And, of course, if his son is going to prom, Tony is hosting the after party. So they all made plans to spend the night at Stark Tower after the dance had ended.

Leo looked absolutely dashing in his tailored suit with shades of grey, and Ryan looked like a proper Prince Charming.

Ryan wore a white suit jacket with black trim with a sky blue waistcoat and black pants. It was just a rented tux, but it fit quite well, and Steve cried when he saw his son all dressed up for the prom. But he and Sam both smiled when they saw Ryan wearing the shoes he had picked out, a pair of Converse in the same light blue as his waistcoat. He had quite the collection of them already but had bought this pair specifically for the dance and had never worn them before.

Robin was much more casual than the others in a forest green polo oxford and khakis, dressed up with shiny brown shoes and a bowtie with little golden arrows on it.

And to complete the veritable rainbow of colors represented by the teens, Elena’s dress was purple. (Clint absolutely loved it and jokingly threatened to steal it when he saw the pictures.) It looked vaguely Grecian (kind of like Megara’s dress in Disney’s _Hercules_ ) and had a flowing gossamer skirt that pooled around her strappy silver heels and just barely trailed the ground in the back.

Elena had confided to her mother that she wasn’t sure if the dress would clash with her hair, but Natalia had convinced her that it wouldn’t and that, even if it did, it didn’t matter. And she had been absolutely right. The shade of royal purple was blue enough that Elena’s auburn red hair didn’t clash at all, and it hung in beautiful ringlets from the half-bun it was pinned into.

The teens complained about all the pictures the parents were taking, but they were all clearly excited about the night. They had decided to go have dinner at a little hole-in-the-wall place rather than take Tony up on his offer to pay for a five star meal, and so they showed up at the unsuspecting restaurant in ball gowns and tuxes, much to the amusement of wait staff and customers alike.


End file.
